Standard Contract Guidelines for a Fraudulent Marriage - Chapter 20

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 20

That was precisely what he had intended to say.

Sieron leaned back against the sofa, meeting Adelia’s puzzled gaze, and paused before speaking.

“I’m an Adopted Son.”
“An Adopted Son?”
“That’s right. Marquis Emit—the man who is my father now—was a distant relative of mine originally. Before all this.”
“Even so…….”
“I didn’t become his Adopted Son until a year or two after I graduated from the Academy. School was far from easy.”

Good heavens. Adelia murmured to herself. She had had no idea.

At that party, Sieron had carried himself with such confidence and ease, as though nobility ran in his blood from birth.

There had been no reason to think anything else about his background.

“Now that I think about it, you and I have quite a bit in common.”

Adelia, who had been blinking, nodded slowly.

Yes, there were similarities. It was something she had never considered before.

“Have you finished eating?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Then we should begin work now.”

Adelia wiped her mouth quickly and rose from her seat with practiced efficiency.

***

While Adelia was showing Sieron the 9th Fungus—Holly—at that very moment.

Loarston sat with a decidedly uncomfortable expression, waiting for the master of the Reception Room who had yet to arrive.

From beyond the window, in the direction of the Inner Courtyard, children were singing angelic voices in time with a violin’s melody.

Maids in identical uniforms moved about quietly, their footsteps barely audible.

Loarston turned away from a maid who had directed her third covert smile at him, then sighed as he leaned back in his chair.

The ornate decorations and ceiling frescoes only heightened his sense of unease.

This was the Royal Palace.

‘Damn it. I should have just made an excuse and gotten out of here.’

Just as he began to contemplate how he might slip away before the master arrived.

The door swung open with a creak.

A footman with a mask-like pale face called out, his gaze fixed on empty air.

“Princess Claria enters!”

Damn.

Loarston barely swallowed a curse that threatened to escape his lips and rose to his feet.

As the footman’s announcement still echoed in the air, Princess Claria appeared through the open doors.

Dressed in a delicate jade gown suited to the season and wearing a tiara, she looked every bit the charming fairy that people said she was.

When their eyes met, Loarston lowered his head slightly.

It was a gesture of respect, though utterly devoid of warmth.

Claria, who had been regarding him expressionlessly, began to wave her small hand with giddy excitement.

At a single gesture from her, countless maids and footmen flowed out of the Reception Room like an ebbing tide.

As the door closed, perfect silence settled over the room.

Claria suddenly grasped her dress hem with a mischievous smile and spun around.

Then she rushed toward Loarston, attempting to throw her arms around his neck.

“……Please don’t do that, Your Highness.”

Loarston tilted his head back sharply and stepped out of reach before she could even extend her arms.

But Claria pressed forward regardless, forcing him to push her away.

“Stop this at once.”

At that, Claria’s rosy cheeks puffed out like a blowfish.

“Why are you being so cold to me?”
“Cold?”
“You used to hold me before we were married.”
“That was before our marriage.”

Claria didn’t bat an eye at Loarston’s calm, resolute answer.

“I know it’s a fake marriage anyway.”

Her voice was melodious yet sharp, cutting straight to the point.

Loarston brought his hand to his lips to maintain his composure.

“That’s simply what you wish to believe, Your Highness.”
“Are you going to keep using formal speech? Sit down.”

Claria’s tone had turned sharp.

Loarston sighed and took a seat, though his expression remained far from relaxed.

“Why are you always disappointing me?”
“When have I ever?”
“You’re doing it right now. Where did our friendship go?”

Friendship. Loarston thought to himself.

Well, there had been a time when such a thing existed. Though it was brief.

‘And far too long ago at that.’

He had no intention of being drawn into her unreasonable whining.

He folded his arms defensively, pretending not to notice her sulk.

Princess Claria and Loarston had first met as childhood playmates.

At the mercy of the capricious princess’s whims, Loarston had endured a rather difficult Childhood.

He had thought that once he came of age and entered the Academy, he might finally be free of her.

But that had been a delusion, or rather, a foolish hope.

“You’ll dance with me at my birthday celebration, won’t you?”
“I’m sure there are countless people who would be delighted to dance with Your Highness.”
“I want to dance with you. And stop speaking so formally.”
“I beg your pardon, but I must maintain proper decorum.”
“Are you going to make me cry?”

Loarston found himself frowning without meaning to. The pattern had been the same since childhood, and he was beginning to find it intolerable.

“What good would that do you?”
“Loarston Insel!”

Loarston stared at Claria as she raised her voice sharply, then let out a deep sigh.

“Please grow up, Claria.”
“Don’t you dare tell me what to do.”
“Don’t you care if others see you like this? This is the Royal Palace. It’s not my place to tell you this—you, as a princess, should be the one exercising greater caution. That’s what makes sense.”

No matter how harshly Loarston spoke, Claria remained unmoved and let out a scornful laugh.

“And what if they do see? Do you think I’d care a whit what people say about me?”
“That’s precisely the problem.”
“Oh, enough. Mother lectures me enough as it is.”

After saying that, Claria smiled mischievously.

“If you want me to behave, why don’t you come sit next to me instead of staying over there?”
“I’ll pass.”

If he sat next to her, she’d cling to him immediately. He knew it well. Loarston despised that tendency of hers.

But since she was royalty and the crown jewel of the kingdom, he ultimately found himself at her mercy.

When he flatly refused to sit beside her, Claria’s expression shifted once again.

With her lips pressed firmly together in a thoroughly sulking face, she glared at him as though she had suffered some grave insult.

“Can a person really change so completely in an instant?”
“Please don’t say things that will be misunderstood. I’ve told you a hundred times that I cannot meet your expectations.”
“I don’t care what you want. I’m saying I will marry you.”

Here we go again.

When would this tiresome, endless affair finally end?

He had even resorted to marriage fraud—something utterly foreign to his nature—to escape this situation.

“Our promise came first!”

Claria cried out.

Loarston closed his eyes tightly at her familiar voice ringing through the ceiling, then opened them again to speak.

“The word ‘promise’ doesn’t even apply here. When did this supposedly happen, Claria? Before we were even six years old. And I never consented in the first place. I have no memory of ever consenting.”
“I remember it, so it doesn’t matter.”

Loarston suppressed another sigh. He already knew—she was someone with whom reason held no sway.

“How much longer will you persist in this, Claria? Grow up.”

The “promise” Claria insisted upon was now nearly twenty years old.

She had taken a fancy to Loarston as a child and declared that she wanted to marry him when she grew up.

She clung to this “promise” based solely on the King having said, “So be it,” in response.

Of course, neither Loarston, who had been present at the time, nor the Duchess of House Insel, who was close to the Queen, had ever taken it seriously—they had simply laughed it off.

The royal family had never formally sent a proposal to House Insel afterward, yet Claria had continued to insist, even to this day, that she was destined to marry Loarston.

“What does it matter that no formal proposal was sent? I am the princess of Rigan. I have the right to marry whomever I wish. You entered the Academy, so I waited for you. How could you not know that?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Are you truly saying you’ll decide something as important as marriage based solely on your own whim? Besides, I’ve already married someone. Someone I genuinely care for.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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